Tales of ancient Kafiristan. "Lost tribe struggles for survival," from the Guardian, with thanks to Skeetstreet:
More than 2,000 years ago Alexander the Great tore across the mountains of northern Pakistan, plundering, conquering and, according to legend, sowing the seeds of a tribe that endures to this day. And today, the Greeks are back.In a valley high in the Hindu Kush a three-storey building towers incongruously over a scattering of low-roofed huts. The ?300,000 (£200,000) centre - part school, part health centre, part museum and conference hall - is being built by the Greek government in an effort to save the Kalasha, Pakistan's tribe of "infidels".
Reputed to have descended from the armies of Alexander, the Kalasha have lived for thousands of years in a nest of idyllic valleys near the Afghan border. But their identity is being threatened by Muslim missionaries, tourism and neglect by central government.
The Kalasha are the last remnants of the population of Kafiristan, the
ancient "land of infidels" that straddled the borders of present-day
Pakistan and Afghanistan. About 4,000 of them survive in three majestic valleys that awe visitors as a sort of paradise lost.Turquoise streams rush through leafy glades of giant walnut trees and
swaying crops. Clusters of simple houses cling to steep forested slopes. Compared with many compatriots beyond their valleys, the Kalasha are charmingly liberal: drinking wine, holding dancing festivals and worshipping a variety of gods. Women wear intricately beaded headdresses, not burkas, and may choose their husband."For me, the Kalasha are heroes, because they have reached the 21st century still living like their fathers," said Athanasius Lerounis, a 50-year-old schoolteacher from Athens supervising construction of the centre, which is due to open next month. "We want to help them preserve that."
The centre, which aims to provide everything from schooling to surgery, has reignited debate about how best to save the Kalasha way of life. Some community leaders feel the Greek initiative is good-hearted, but wrong-headed. "I don't blame them for wanting to help, but that help could damage us," said Saifullah Jan in Rumbur valley. "There is too much interference. Our people are getting spoilt. They should just let us be."...
They are knows as "Kaffir" Kalash and are last remaining tracable Indo_Greeks known as Indo-Bactrians many of them have convrted to Islam.
I particularly noticed this bit
Muhammad Salim, a shopkeeper who converted to Islam eight years ago, said he had a store of free winter clothes for distribution to the needy. "But they are only for the Kalasha who convert," he said.
The online article didn't have the smashing picture the newspaper version did. Three beautiful little girls, smiling confidently at the reader, wearing colourful, dainty, beaded hats. Such a contrast to the rest of Pakistan.
This BBC item is off at a tangent a bit. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4103556.stm
Leaving aside that the Bleedin' Biased Corporation calls Mukhtaran Mai an "alleged" victim of rape, and describes her restriction as a PR disaster when it is a human rights violation, scroll down to the picture of her flanked by two what I assume are policewomen. Service peaked caps on top of white full face veils. I suppose with a woman's evidence only worth half that of a man's it does not matter that their evidence in court would be worthless in practice as you could not be sure that you really were examining the correct arresting officer.
And such a contrast to the Kalasha girls.
I'm always amazed at how differently 'modesty' is interpreted. In that picture referenced by granny, two interpretations. I also saw the clip a couple of weeks ago of Pakistani women being arrested, by unveiled women police officers, for attempting to run in an organized foot race.
So I have to wonder if the white veils are a more formal uniform.
None the less, different interpretations.
I meant the picture of the two veiled police women with Ms. Mai.
Also, wouldn't the worldwide 'modesty' interpretation differences be the kind of ammunition needed to force nations with the strictest, and most repressive Islamic interpretations (Saudi Arabia comes to mind) to explain why they do as they do, and to ultimately relax such standards?
OT
SPQR:
Contact Spencer at director@jihadwatch.org with regard to your inability to post. He will tell you why posts were deleted and which of his "rules" you have broken. He will most likely re-instate you as long as you apologize and promise not to repeat any offending behavior.
Spencer is merciful, most compassionate and oft-forgiving. ; - )
I don't hold a candle for forcing anyone to convert to Islam, but cultural change goes on all the time. And a culture like that of Chitral probably doesn't stand much of a chance in this day and age. Besides, is it proper to keep peoples, whether in the Hindu Kush, Amazon, or the hollows of Appalachia, mere living museum pieces to satisfy the tourist trade and a few eccentric anthropologists?
Far from being a survival of pre-Christian Greek culture planted by Alexander's vets, the Kalash and other Hindu Kush peoples formerly designated as Kafir (their cousins on the Afghan side of the line have been designated "Nuristan", or "Land of Light", since forcibly Islamicized back in the 1890's) are Indo-Aryan folks long indigenous to the area. I think the idea that they descended from Alexander's men goes back to the late 19th century, when the Afghan Emir was forcibly Islamicizing those on his side of the line. It's the background for Kipling's story _The Man Who Would be King_.
Speaking of cultural change, I can't help but notice that this guy Athanasios Lerounis bears not the name of some hero of pagan antiquity, but a guy who resisted 4th century Unitarianism (aka Arianism) to confess that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man--indeed, "deathless", as his name translates from Greek. Indeed, there's a culture that underwent a BIG cultural sea change.
KAFIRISTAN.
I like that name!
Maybe it should be adopted by all Western nations as an honorary title preceding things -like " "Kafiristan Netherlands". "Kafiristan Deutscheland", and "Kafiristan America"- in solidarity with these beseigned folks, since we are all 'kafiristans' in the eyes of those who do such naming.
While the Greeks were determining the circumference of the Earth by comparing the lengths of shadows in Egypt and setting out the fundamental laws of reasoning, the progenitors of Islam were thinking that the "sun sets in a muddy pool" and that the "stars are missiles to hit devils with".
"Infidels', indeed.
If anyone knows about web pages devoted to the Kalasha, please give me the pages. I first heard about them in a magazine I read several years ago. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the magazine where I read the article.
My email address is alexb@netacc.net.
Christian - I to remember reading about them in a magazine a few years ago I think that magazine might be the National Geographic. A story about the Hindu Kush or a mountain range in northern Pakistan.
This is a book by a lecturer at Colorado University called Our Women are Free.
The Kalasha differ in many ways from the conservative Muslim communities now surrounding them. Yet despite their obvious religious differences with nearby communities, when asked what makes the Kalasha unique, both men and women often reply, "Our women are free" (homa istrizia azat asan). The concept that Kalasha women are "free" (azat), that they have "choice" (chit), is a topic of spirited conversation among the Kalasha. It touches at the heart of both individual women's identities and the collective identity of the community.
http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=11273
BigSleep:
My new favourite flower is called the kafir lily and I love Thai food because they flavour some of their dishes with kafir lime leaves.
Kafiristan sounds lovely, but, you know, SO ethnic. Let's honor the Kalashas with a more Greekish sounding locale: I propose Infidelphia.
BigSleep:
"While the Greeks were determining the circumference of the Earth by comparing the lengths of shadows in Egypt and setting out the fundamental laws of reasoning, the progenitors of Islam were thinking that the "sun sets in a muddy pool" and that the "stars are missiles to hit devils with"."
Which progenitors of Islam are you talking about? If you mean the Hebrews, I don't recall a verse in the Bible saying that the sun sets in a murky pool and that stars are missiles to hit devils with.
Also, there was no Islam around in Ptolemaic times. The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt died when Cleopatra offered her breast to a pet cobra rather than grace Octavian's triumph a few decades before Christ; and was born shortly after Alexander the Great died.
Kepha-
I meant the desert Arabs. Mohammads great, great, etc. grandparents .
The Hebrews had nothing to do with any of this, and why you bring them up I can't imagine, since they were not the "progenitors of Islam", unless you are implying the much later plagiarizing of the Hebrew Deity, Bible and kosher customs.
I'm talking about the Bedouins, etc., who gave birth to the superstitions that Mohammad clearly parroted in the two quotes of his ("muddy pool" / "devil missiles") I mentioned. His polytheistic tribal forefathers, who were worshipping a metoerite at Mecca, along with scores of other idols, and had no science to speak of, except perhaps advanced camel hobbles.
Jauhara al_Kafira: If you want something Greek, why not Apistotopia? "Infidel" is Latin.
BigSleep--no offense taken.